The Writer's Life 11/1 - Tricks

In an article that is equal parts funny and dismaying, Michael Kane lists past dirty electoral tricks, proving that politics is the ultimate hardball and the people involved are supreme slimeballs. In a bid for fairness, I list one from each of the major parties, edited by yours truly: "1964: In Lyndon Johnson’s campaign against Barry Goldwater, he set up a secret 16-member team dubbed the '5 o’clock club' that wrote anonymous letters to columnist Ann Landers slamming Goldwater; secretly fed hostile questions to reporters on the Goldwater campaign trail; infiltrated headquarters to swipe advance texts of speeches; and even wrote books with titles like The Case Against Barry Goldwater and a kids book in which tykes could color in with crayons Goldwater dressed in a Ku Klux Klan robe."
1972: "And then there was Richard Nixon. Watergate was the coup de grâce, but as anyone who’s seen All the President’s Men knows, Nixon operative Donald Segretti and his team of 'ratf – – kers' started small. In the Democratic primary season, they ruined Edmund Muskie, whom they considered a strong potential opponent for the general election. In New Hampshire, voters began getting late-night phone calls from rude people pushing for Muskie. To play on racist fears, many callers were either black or pretended to be and added that they’d been bused up from Harlem to work for Muskie."

Jonathan Trugman delivered troubling economic news in his article. When GDP came in at 1.5% in the third quarter, it guaranteed that the Obama presidency will be the first in history to record seven straight years of below 2% growth. Even the period of the Great Depression had blips above that mark. My fear is that citizens will accept this as the new normal rather than examine the issues and elect people who might boost growth.

Last night AntennaTV, 114 on Cablevision in NYC, ran an Alfred Hitchcock Presents marathon. One episode, The Day of the Bullet, which first aired in 1960, was about two kids growing up in Bath Beach. It was based on a short story by Stanley Ellin, who grew up in the area and was a lifelong resident of Brooklyn. He is the third author I'd been unaware of recently. He graduated from New Utrecht H.S. and Brooklyn College. He wrote 11 novels, four short story collections, six screenplays, and numerous teleplays, including seven other Hitchcock's. He won three Edgar Allan Poe Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. Following a stroke, he died of a heart attack at 70 in 1986 at King's County Hospital. I hope someone donates one of his works to the floating book shop.

With the NYC Marathon underway, I thought it best not to travel to Park Slope today, so I returned to Bay Parkway. My thanks to three kind ladies who bought seven paperbacks between them.

Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tinyurl.com/l84h63j

Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp

Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f

Vic's Blog: http://vicfortezza.blogspot.com/

Vic's Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/